Ornamented felt and felt material



Dec. 26,. 1933. F. R. STIRN 1,941,231

ORNAMENTED FELT AND FELT MATERIAL I Filed June 7, 1953 FELT BEFOBE EMBOSSl/VG FELT HFTEE. EMB05$IIV6 AFTEB NflPP/NG, AFTZ-z STEAM/N6 POU/VC ING HFTEB STEAM/Na INVENTOR FEeo/Mq/vo E. 577 EN ATTORN EYS Patented Dec. 26, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFF-ICE 1,941,281' oamnmm'nn FELT AND FELT MATERIAL,

Ferdinand a. Stirn, relham, N. r, assignor to F. & A. Stirn Corporation, New York, N. 'Y., a

2 Claims.

The present invention relates to a process of treatingfelt and felted materials, and to the novel felts and felted materials produced thereby, and it particularly relates to a method of deco- 8 rating such felts and felted materials.

Although felts and felted materials, particularly for utilization in hats, have been produced for many years, they have usually been devoid of ornamentation, because of the difficulties of ap- 10 plying or forming any design or pattern on the surface thereof.

An object of the present invention is to provide an, ornamented felt and felted material which may be made most conveniently and inexpensively without substantial modification of the present processes of manufacturing and finishing such materials.

Other objects will appear during the course of the following specification.

According to the first procedure of the present invention felt or felted material, whether made of fur, wool or other raw stock, in body, hood, strip, piece or other form, is pressed or embossed so as to form a design thereupon, portions of which are relatively depressed.

The embossed or ornamented felt fabric is then napped and/ or, pounced which process consists in partially or entirely removing the mounds of the elevated portions. This same process may also be v 80 employed to modify the appearance of' the elevated portions.

Then the napped, or pounced felt is steamed with the result that the depressed portion will expand, and depending upon the nature of the raw 85 material used in the felt it may rise above the level of those portions which have'been sheared. The resultant ornamentation will be permanent and will not be obliterated upon usage or wearing of the material even though long continued. 40 In the drawing is diagrammatically illustrated a method of making the ornamented felt, felt material or felt fabric of the present invention.

In Figure 1 is shown the initial felt or felt material before embossing. r

In Figure 2 the felt or felt material is shown after embossing which will cause the formation of mounds 10 and the depressions 11, the mounds.

10, being relatively slightly compressed while the depressions 11. are relatively highly compressed. In Figure'3 the felt is shown after napping or pouncing, which preferably consists of an abrasion or sandpapering operation to remove the elevated portions of themounds 10 to leave a sort of plateau formation, as indicated at 12, In Figure 4 the felt is shown after a steaming 1 as by laying wires thereacross to produce any desired effect. v

operation has restored the depressions 11 to their original height.

In Figure 5 a diagrammatic representation of the surface appearance of the steamed felt is shown. v

When the napped or pounced material, as shown in Figure 3 is then steamed, the depressed portions 11 will in the form of the invention shown, elevatethemselves above the plateau portions 12. As a result, the embossed effect of Figures 4 and 5 will be obtained, the plateau portions being indicated at 12, while the expanded or 'elevated compressed portions are indicated at 11'. Y

It is possible by the selection of raw. mate- 7, rials to obtain a product in substantially the condition shown in Figure 3 after steaming, where the compressed or depressed portions will still remain below the level of' the plateaus 12.

The, embossed effect, as shown in Figure 2,

may be attained by suitably ornamenting and engraving the pressing forms or rollers. It is also possible to lay wires, ornamenting sheets or stencils, or other forms upon one of the press- ,ing surfaces of the embossing apparatus to cause so embossed designs upon the felt material. I While it is obvious that the:embossing may be attained by a wide variety of different. appara-- tus, it has been found most practical, when the felt is in body or hood form, to cause the embossing to take place as a result of the hydraulic pressing operation which is utilized in giving 'the proper shape to the hat form. In this case,

instead of hydraulically pressing the hood of felt against a mold surface which is smooth, as such mold surface is provided withan engraving or ornamented surface.

Instead of engraving the. mold the face of the mold may be also provided with a series of ridges The method of embossing-by hydraulic pres- I sure is most conveniently carried out-by pressing the felt body or hood against the embossed or engraved surface by a fiexible rubber bag which is particularly adapted to apply pressure evenly to the entire felt body.

The ornamented felt material resulting ac- 1 cording to the present invention may be utilized widely for many commercial purposes. It may be used for millinery, slippers, shoes, wearing appareLhand bags, luggage, bath mats, pillow covers, upholstery for furniture and automobiles,

table covers, wall coverings and so forth.

It is also possible to produce novel colored or .110

surfacing effects according to the present inven-v tion by applying varnishes, pigments, and other surfacing effects to the material, even before or after embossing, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, respectively. The surfacing will be removed from the mounds in Figure 3 so that the plateaus as shown at 12 will not have such surfacing.

As a result, after steaming, as shown in Figures 4 and 5, only the elevated portions 11' will carry the ornamented surfacing.

If desired, the surfacing might also be applied by a roller to the felt, as shown in Figure 3, so that only the elevated portions of the plateaus .12 would receive the surfacing. In this case in l tion, stencils with ornamental designs are applied to the felt materials and such felt materials with stencils applied thereto, are then sandblasted or treated with an omamenting material. The sandblasting would remove portions of thefelt while the application of the color or other ornamentation might lend desirable designs thereto. A

It is obvious that many modifications might be made in the above invention without departing from the scope thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. A process of producing ornamented felts and felted materials which comprises providing a felt, forming an embossed pattern thereon, abrading the elevated portions of said embossed material and then steaming.

2. A process of producing ornamented felts or felted material in hood or body form, which comprises providing a felt in hood or body form, pressing such felt to form an embossed pattern thereon, abrading the elevated portions of said embossed material, and then steaming.

FERDINAND a. s'rraN. 

